Abolishing the Death Penalty Essay

3076 Words13 Pages

Abolishing the Death Penalty

When taking a human life in response to a crime, a state is acting on behalf of all of its citizens. Capital punishment is an expensive procedure with permanent ramifications. It is therefore very important that the matter of capital punishment be seriously reconsidered. In order to protect all of America's citizens, I recommend that congress approve a constitutional amendment that reads:

The states and the federal government shall not under any circumstances execute anyone. All prisoners currently under sentence of death shall have the right to a new trial.
The reasons for such an amendment include the inherent immorality of capital punishment, its inconsistent application and its unjustified costs.…show more content…

The same rationale that prevents us from using torture or corporal punishment should apply to the death penalty as well. Amnesty International argues, "If today's penal systems do not sanction the burning of an arsonist's home, the rape of a rapist or the torture of a torturer, it is not because they tolerate the crimes" (Amnesty International 7). Reasoning that a murderer is deserving of death simply mirrors the criminal's behavior. Amnesty International says, "If administering 100 volts of electricity to the most sensitive parts of a man's body evokes disgust, what is the appropriate reaction to the administration of 2,000 volts to his body in order to kill him?" (Amnesty International 2). William J. Bowers observes, "Executions demonstrate that it is correct and appropriate to kill those who have gravely offended us" (274). In addition, it is impossible for a judge to administer justice to murderers of varying extremity in a just manner. How can we sentence a one-time homicide convict to death at the same time as a mass-murderer?

Another reason that the death penalty is immoral is that the various methods of administering the death penalty are inhumane. The gas chamber, which involves strapping the prisoner to a wooden chair and pumping a sealed room full of cyanide gas, is excruciatingly painful. "The person is unquestionably experiencing pain and extreme anxiety...The sensation is similar to the pain felt by a person during a heart attack, where essentially the…

Regular murder cases are found less expensive than death penalty cases, and research has shown states with capital punishment have a higher murder rate than states without capital punishment (“Crime in United States”). Civilians have questioned if capital punishment should be legalized. Currently, in 2011, people question if the government should have authority over life or death of human beings. Arthur Koestler believed the gallows was a symbol of death and mankind must reject it to keep surviving (…

It is irrational to think that the death penalty – a remote threat at best – will avert murders committed in drug turf wars or by street-level dealers” (Bedau). This shows that the death penalty is not stopping murders from occurring. The introduction to the death penalty conducted a survey were top criminologists stated that the death penalty does not deter homicide rates (Introduction). “For 2009, the average Murder Rate of Death Penalty States was 4.9 [Murder rates by the 100,000], while the average…

law a bill abolishing the death penalty. The bill ratified their 1987 Constitution which states that, “the death penalty shall not be imposed. Any death penalty already imposed shall be reduced to reclusion perpetua” (Article III, section 19(1). In Africa, only six countries continue to impose the death penalty. On September 16, 2005, Liberia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. Article…

People opposed to the death penalty also point to the fact that over half of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty, including all other major industrialized, democratic nations. In the five countries with the highest homicide rates that do not impose the death penalty, the murder rate is 21.6 murders per 100,000 people. In the five countries with the highest homicide rates that do impose the death penalty, the murder rate is 41.6 murders per 100,000 people ("Deterrence"). Furthermore…

Against the Death Penalty
“Murder is wrong” (“Capital Punishment”). We’ve been taught this indisputable truth since childhood. The death penalty is defined as one human taking the life of another. Coincidentally, that is a classification of murder. There are as many as thirty-six states with the death penalty, and it’s essential that they change it. The United States needs the death penalty abolished because it is filled with flaws, cruel and immoral, and is an ineffective means of deterrent…

Additionally, because the death penalty is such an ultimate decision, the number of court trials required to follow through with the sentence builds up significant costs as well. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, the elimination of the death penalty would be beneficial due to the economic ease it would bring.
The death penalty is inefficient means of punishment in both process and methodology. Due process by which criminals are tried is a lengthy and elaborate process. Convicts can make repeated…

shows that murder rates were actually higher in states with the death penalty than in states that did not have the death penalty (Death Penalty Information Center, 2010). If the death penalty is a deterrent, wouldn’t these rates be reversed? In an article published in the New York Times entitled ABSENCE OF EXECUTIONS: A special report.; States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates, states that states who do have the death penalty actually have higher murder rates than the national average…

that time, he finally got what he deserved” (If Death Penalty Is Abolished, What Next?). Without the death penalty, proper justice is unattainable.
In addition to serving justice where it is due, the death penalty provides a powerful deterrent to crime. H. Naci Mocan, an economist at Louisiana State University and an author of a study that finds that each death penalty carried out deters five murders said, “I personally am opposed to the death penalty, but my research shows that there is a deterrent…

A fifth rationale in opposition is that the death penalty is too expensive or too costly to taxpayers to justify its use. According to those who oppose the death penalty and certain studies, it costs more to execute a person than to keep him or her in prison for life (Death Penalty Focus, 2015). Finally, it is believed by some that the killing at the hands of the state is not a righteous act but instead is on the same moral level as the murderers themselves.
According to capital punishment supporters…

percent of the death row inmates are diagnosed with some form of mental illness.
Second, ending the death penalty would cost less, when involving the physical and emotional costs of the punishment. Within the physical aspects of the death penalty, it costs around 90,000 a year per inmate to stay on death row. The average estimated amount for each inmate, in total, is two million dollars. Death row costs almost four times as much as life imprisonment without parole. Since the death penalty costs such…